7/5/13

Welcome to The Blog Around the Corner!

Welcome to 'The Blog Around the Corner'! If you want to learn 'About' this blog, there is an 'About Me' section running along the right side of the page. This introductory post is mostly to talk about why I decided to start a blog, how the blog got its name, what to do with the 'Your Thoughts' section, and what I was listening to while creating the blog!

So why did I start this blog? Well, I'm an aspiring writer. I'm currently working on a novel which will hopefully (someday) get published. I'm also a journalism major in college and after some (more like lots and lots of) prompting from my best friend, my favorite roomie, and my mom I finally decided to start a blog. Writing is sort of my thing, so a blog is the perfect place to hone my skills talking about things I love.

Blogs are probably supposed to stick to one subject. That's how you attract a certain type of reader; it's a good marketing tool. I, however, have many interests which include: reading, listening to and playing music, watching way too much TV, and watching hockey. I could not simply pick one of these areas to blog about because in my daily life they all seem to intersect. How is that possible? Well, I may read a book about music, or I'm watching Gilmore Girls and hear them talking about a book that I decide I want to read. Perhaps I've finally had enough of listening to NBC announcers during NHL Playoffs and stick my headphones in. In my daily life books, music, TV, and hockey cross over quite frequently. Right now I'm blogging and I'm listening to music, multi-tasking at its finest. (I'm listening to Luke Bryan if you were wondering. I'm not listening to one specific song or anything, I just have the Luke Bryan artist part of my iTunes on shuffle!)

So how did I pick 'The Blog Around the Corner' as my blog name?

Originally I was just going to do book reviews on this blog but, like I said, I have too many interests. One of my all time favorite movies is You've Got Mail. If you've seen the movie, you now understand where the blog name came from. If you've never seen the movie, I'll give you the short version. One of the main characters in the movie, Kathleen Kelly, owns a children's book store called 'The Shop Around the Corner'. Since this was going to be a book blog, why not pay homage to a (fictional) little store in New York City that I wish I could visit? Even once I decided I'd be blogging about more than just books, I liked the name so much I decided to keep it, I don't think Kathleen Kelly would mind.

Finally, just a quick note about the 'Your Thoughts' section at the bottom of each post. That is there for book, movie, music, and television reviews. It comes equipped with 4 options: 'Add It to My List', 'Not For Me', 'I Like It', and 'Don't Like'. First, I apologized for the short and clipped 'Don't Like' but I was running out of characters. These four buttons are for you, the reader, to show me what you think of the item being reviewed. If you read the review and you think it's something you want to check out, click 'Add It to My List'. If you read the review and it doesn't sound like something you're interested in, click 'Not for Me'. If you've read/heard/watched the item being reviewed before and you liked it, click 'I Like It'. Last but not least, if you've read/heard/watched the item being reviewed and you didn't really enjoy it, click 'Don't Like'. This is just a simple way for me to understand the interests of my audience!

So, I think that's all you need to know before browsing this blog. Hopefully you'll enjoy what you find here and take away a few book suggestions, a few new artists to add to your iTunes wish list, and far more insights into television shows than you'd ever thought possible!